From silicon to speed - How Azure NetApp Files powers EDA's future today
Azure NetApp Files boosts performance for EDA and HPC workloads with high throughput, low latency, and scalability. Learn real-world benchmarks, deployment tips, and how customers accelerate chip design using ANF.
Speakers
As Director of Product Management for Azure NetApp Files, I bring over three decades of global experience in IT data management. I’m passionate about enabling individuals and organizations to unlock the full potential of their data. Drawing on deep industry expertise, I shape the vision and strategy for Azure NetApp Files—driving innovation that supports our customers’ evolving needs. My focus is on accelerating enterprise application migrations and advancing AI-readiness in Azure, helping customers achieve greater agility, performance, and success in the cloud.
Richard Paw has more than 25 years in semiconductor and EDA. He started in chip design, then tools, methodology, and CAD. He led efforts at Synopsys and the EDA industry to leverage HPC for chip design.\n\nHe's helped the EDA industry move to the cloud since 2017. Richard kicked off Rescale's semiconductor practice. There he advised both GCP and AWS their cloud solutions for EDA. He spent two years at AWS helping to advance their role in the chip industry, connect with the EDA partners, and develop EDA specific capabilities.\n\nAt Microsoft, Richard works with industry, partners, and customers to leverage Microsoft technologies like HPC, data, and AI for semiconductor workloads. he is part of the team that is developing the Microsoft Discovery Platform for scientific and engineering workloads with a focus physics, semiconductor, and EDA.\n\nRichard holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Andy Chan is a Principal Product Manager for Azure NetApp Files (ANF), Microsoft’s first party, enterprise class file storage service delivering high performance, scalability, and multi protocol support for mission critical workloads including HPC, AI, databases, and enterprise applications. In this role, he drives product strategy, customer adoption, and technical partnerships that enable organizations to accelerate innovation in Azure.\n\nPreviously, Andy served as a Microsoft Global Black Belt, leading semiconductor HPC engagements and helping customers harness Azure for large scale engineering workloads. His contributions to customer success and business growth earned him membership in the Microsoft Platinum Club, recognizing top performers across the company.\n
Michael Barnes is a Senior Engineering Manager at ASML, where he leads the development of AI, HPC, and DevOps cloud native platforms. With over 25 years experience in software development and distributed system design, he has built systems for AI, Top100 HPC clusters, virtual reality & interactive graphics labs in the commercial, government and higher education verticals. He is passionate about abstraction, efficiency, reliability and performance, and is always pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
Vikram Bhatia is head of cloud product management and GTM strategy at Synopsys. He's responsible for building the industry's first completely browser-based EDA-as-a-Service platform, Synopsys Cloud. He has over 25 years of experience in product strategy, and prior to joining Synopsys, he served in a variety of leadership roles at companies including NetApp, Oracle, HP and Microsoft. Over the last decade, Vikram has exclusively focused on transforming traditional on-premises business models to cloud based SaaS offerings though product management, go-to-market strategy, partnerships, and sales transformation initiatives. Vikram has a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and graduate degrees from the Colorado School of Mines and the Indian School of Business.
